(*Symptoms in brief: 10kgs on weight gain, back pain, fatigue and sharp constant pain under my right boob above my rib). So, the amount of times I get asked "how did you know you had cancer?" or "what were your symptoms?" the automatic reply in my head (you know when your mind is shouting the most sarcastic comment back at the person you're talking to but you never say it out loud.. yep, exactly that in this situation) is "how did I NOT KNOW!?". But instead, I politely reply (because people are genuinely interested, worried or shocked and how are they meant to know?) with some sort of description of myself being a walking barrel with (and this is my best and most used line) my little arms and legs poking out either side. Yep, I looked like a human version of humpty dumpty (minus the great fall part..). I gained 10kgs of weight in 2 weeks, I was going mad. I looked 6 months pregnant in 2 weeks, I wasn't thinking straight at all and decided in my head that I could potentially be pregnant (madness) so I did FIVE pregnancy tests.. now I could be a sales manager for pregnancy tests as I used the majority of high street pregnancy tests ranging from the home bargains value 79p wee on a stick jobby to the whole "clear blue" top (apparently) one which, at the time pushed me to the limit of my student overdraft with the price of it. The other thing I had been debating was a gluten allergy so, also taking money away from me like daylight robbery was my new favourite place, the gluten free isle at my local Morrisons. It is important to say, in all seriousness (I take the piss a lot if you hadn't noticed) is that I showed weight gain signs from the December (3 months prior to this insane weight gain), very small and pretty insignificant changes that I put down to weight gain from christmas. It wasn't until the March time where the noticeable HUGE weight gain happened. Now I want to say here, if you have ANY weight gain, bloating, changes in bowel habits or changes in your period however big or small then GO TO THE DOCTOR. I was a knob, I had small weight gain since the December and was abnormally tired (looking back). Initially I put the weight gain down to eating my own body weight in pigs in blankets and it should have come off easily as I went exercise mad. I was running, doing HIIT training plans and working out at the gym along with busy student nurse placement life and seeing to my horses. One day I was doing a workout in the bedroom (in February) and the start of humpty dumpty life dawned upon me when I looked in the mirror while doing star jumps with a crop top on, saw my pot belly hanging out and shouted out loud (yep, like a mad woman but we've all done it) "WHY WON'T THIS FXCKING BELLY GO". The other symptoms I had was fautigue (I was shattered but I was a student nurse on my second to last placement and we are all shattered!). I was coming home from a 0800-1600 day (normal hours WOO) and having a 1-2 hour nap straight after, then going to bed at around 2100 and sleeping the whole night but waking up still tired. I also had pain under my right boob above my ribs which I worked out was my gallbladder (thanks google) so me being me, self diagnosed myself with 1 of 2 things: 1) The more realistic of the 2 - a blocked bile duct causing ascites which they'd just drain, I'd have a few weeks off placement (lovely) and I would be back up and running 2) I geniunley thought this and what a bloody idiot for it - I thought I had liver damage from under age drinking (my parents will know.. the lovely plastic bottle filled with 90% vodka and 10% coke which your taste buds some how had NO reaction to.. how?!) ..... Aren't you glad I'm not a doctor?
I also had back ache, ALL the time. I wore those heat patches that you strap around you like a huge belt (lyyods pharmacy was my all time favourite place then) and took co-codamol constantly for days (not good).
Fast forward to the March where the fully fledged humpty dumpty look took over (refer to the picture above which you can't really miss as its SO BIG), soon to be renamed "Olga" (Olga, begins with an O.. was to do with ovaries, first thing that popped into my head, no negativity towards anyone called Olga) and after I had done my five (very negative) pregnancy tests was when my diagnosis really happened - sorry, its taken me a long time, I could've just started with "I went to the GP one day". I booked the GP on a Monday morning, I was ready.. GP starts taking calls at 0800 so there I was with my cup of tea at 0750 ready to get an appointment amongst all the other people who also were, got through at 0810 and the receptionist had the cheek to say "you should've rang at 0800, we've ran out of appointments". Well, there I was ready to drive round to show her my call log with the evidence I called BEFORE 0800 when she asked me for a basic description of what was wrong and then freed up an appointment (thanks!). This was GP appointment 1 of 2 and highlights the importance of booking another appointment if you do think it might be a mis-diagnosis (and remember all doctors and health care professionals are HUMAN, some problems they may have not seen or experienced before so no bitching about how sometimes they make mistakes, we ALL do). I went in and explained my symptoms (can't really miss it, I nearly broke the chair with the size of my belly!) Basically, never try and self-diagnose because the GP fixated on "gall bladder" and, very unconcerningly booked me in for some blood tests and a scan which could take anything from 6 weeks to 12 weeks to come through. I repeated to her "so, your not worried about my belly because this isn't normal?" to which she replied she was but that blood tests would show anything. So I left, half thinking it wasn't a good enough explanation, half not believing her and 3% of me actually feeling relieved that it wasn't anything worse (you do this weird thing where in the back of your mind you know its not good but because someone doesn't say it there and then, its a good thing).
Fast forward to Friday and Olga HAD GROWN MORE. I developed a massive rash on my whole stomach as well and decided that on Monday, if I couldn't get passed the 0800 mad rush at the GP to book emergency appointments that I would (drum roll please, its a big deal for me) take myself to A&E. So, I managed to get through and get an appointment with a different GP on the Monday. He was AMAZING, I explained the exact same thing but this time threw in that I was a runner and I ran 6 miles just one week ago and then ended up this massive with all the pain. He took a urine sample (I did explain, using my best pregnancy test sales manager speech, how I had already done 5 negative tests) to which he said he knew but he had to (we do have to). He listened to my stomach, took my obs, took my height and weight, spoke to me, took one look at Olga and said "you need to go to the hospital, I will ring some people, write you a letter but you need to go today".
(Next: All about hospital, scans, internal examinations - yay - and the "2 week cancer pathway)